Sterile Insect Technique - Development of The Sterile Insect Technique

Development of The Sterile Insect Technique

Raymond Bushland and Edward Knipling first developed the technique to eliminate screwworms preying on warm-blooded animals, especially cattle herds. With larvae that invade open wounds and eat into animal flesh, the flies were capable of killing cattle within 10 days of infection. In the 1950s, screwworms caused annual losses to American meat and dairy supplies that were projected at above $200 million. Screwworm maggots are also known to parasitize human flesh. Since a female screwworm mates only once in her lifetime, this physiological phenomenon has been exploited by biologists in breaking its life cycle. After mating with a sterile male, the screwworm female will not mate again or lay any eggs.

The quest of Bushland and Knipling to find an alternative to chemical pesticides in controlling the devastation wrought by these insects began in the late 1930s when both scientists were working at the United States Department of Agriculture Laboratory in Menard, Texas. At that time, the screwworm was decimating livestock herds across the American South. Red meat and dairy supplies were also affected across Mexico, Central America, and South America.

While Bushland initially researched chemical treatment of screwworm-infested wounds in cattle, Knipling developed the theory of autocidal control – breaking the life cycle of the pest itself. Bushland's enthusiasm for Knipling's theory sparked both men to intensify the search for a way to rear large numbers of flies in a "factory" setting, and most importantly, to find an effective way to sterilize flies.

Their work in this area was interrupted by World War II, but Drs. Bushland and Knipling resumed their efforts in the early 1950s with their successful tests on the screwworm population of Sanibel Island, Florida. The sterile insect technique worked; near eradication was achieved using X-ray sterilized flies.

In 1954, the technique was used to completely eradicate screwworms from the 176-square-mile (460 km2) island of Curaçao, off the coast of Venezuela. Screwworms were eliminated in a span of only seven weeks, saving the domestic goat herds that were a source of meat and milk for the island people.

During the 1960s and 1970s, SIT was used to control the screwworm population in the United States. The 1980s saw Mexico and Belize eliminate their screwworm problems through the use of SIT, and eradication programs have progressed through all of Central America, with a biological barrier having been established in Panama to prevent reinfestation from the south. In 1991, Knipling and Bushland's technique halted a serious outbreak in northern Africa. Similar programs against the Mediterranean fruit fly in Mexico and California use the same principles. In addition, the technique was used to eradicate the melon fly from Okinawa and has been used in the fight against the tsetse fly in Africa.

The technique has been able to suppress insects threatening livestock, fruit, vegetable, and fiber crops. The technique has also been lauded for its many environmentally sound attributes: it uses no chemicals, leaves no residues, and has no effect on non-target species.

Proven effective in controlling outbreaks of a wide range of insect pests throughout the world, the technique has been a boon in protecting the agricultural products to feed the world’s human population. Both Bushland and Knipling received worldwide recognition for their leadership and scientific achievements, including the World Food Prize. Their research and the resulting Sterile Insect Technique were hailed by former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman as "the greatest entomological achievement of (the 20th) century."